How Objective and Subjective Mental Resources Influence Task Performance: Testing the “I Worked Hard, I Must Be Depleted” Hypothesis

Three studies reveal that inferences that consumers make about the resource demands of a preceding task (independent of actual resource demands) affect how much resources will be allocated to a subsequent task. Hence, resource allocation to a task depends not only on the objective resources that are available, but also on consumers’ theories about the resources that are still available.